Black Hills 1: Little Devil's Tower

Memorial Day weekend is always a challenge. In Colorado, heavy snows prevent backpacking in the mountains. In Utah and southwest Colorado, it's already getting hot and crispy. This year we gathered up a group of friends and headed north to the Black Hills of South Dakota.

This was my first trip to the Black Hills, so I didn't know what to expect. What I found were a surprisingly rugged collection of mountains, spectacular prairies, and plentiful wildlife.

We left work early on Thursday, and spent over an hour trying to pack car camping gear into our two cars. The drive across Wyoming was very scenic, with great views of the prairie. On one stretch of road, we followed what appeared to be the busiest train track in America. On another we saw a family of deer, with a coyote checking them out from 100 yards away. And of course, enough hawks and antelope to fill a small football stadium. The best part, though, was an extended sunset that lasted for hours.

Only five hours later we rolled into Custer, South Dakota, where we had a hotel room for the night. Custer was a nice little town, with a great breakfast place. After fueling up with food and coffee, we drove into Custer State Park to our reserved campsites at Legion Lake. We set up our campsite, and then piled into one car to go hike the Little Devil's Tower.

Kevin in front of Little Devil's Tower

The trail was short but very steep. The rocks, terrain, and vegetation reminded me of the northeast, but without the pesky bugs.

Cathedral Spires

Kim in front of Harney Peak, tallest mountain in South Dakota

Cathedral Spires

Dorinna climbing on the summit of Little Devil's Tower

Dorinna's Naturalist Hike (post 2 of 2)

This field of Perky Sue caught my interest.

Dorinna's Naturalist Hike (post 1 of 2)

Dorinna recently completed her training to become a naturalist for Larimer county. A week after my parent's visit, she led her first hike. The topic was wildflower families, and she led our group to Horsetooth Falls, showing off the flowers along the way.

Dorinna the Naturalist (photo courtesy Kevin McNinch)

Mouse Ears

Mom and Dad visit Fort Collins

Last month Mom and Dad visited us from New Hampshire for a long weekend. It was a busy trip. Our first day started with a hiking and birding visit to the Fossil Creek Natural Area. We saw a lot of different kinds of birds, as well plenty of the monster carp that dwell in the lake. We took other hikes at the Environmental Learning Center and the Poudre River trail. Our most ambitious walk, though, was a loop to visit Horsetooth Falls at Horsetooth Mountain Park. The flowers were out in force, and Spring Creek still had enough water in it to make it a worthwhile destination.

Towards the end of the hike we met a set of mountain bikers who warned us about a rattlesnake up the trail. Dad and I climbed up to see the snake and take his picture.

Besides hiking, we visited the Governor’s Invitational Art Show down in Loveland, saw a show at Hodi’s Half Note, and of course visited various restaurants and shops in Fort Collins. We tried to take a tour at New Belgium Brewery, but were stymied by a lack of tickets. We settled for trying a variety of delicious brews in the free tasting center.

We capped the weekend by holding “Martini Night” at the house, drinking a variety of alcohol concoctions while watching James Bond on the new stereo system.

My only regret from the visit was once again failing to take any pictures of people (namely, my parents).

Austria Vacation Log: Day 16, Final Days

Our last day in Austria. We started the day by going to the Augustinian Church for Sunday Mass. The Mass itself wasn’t that interesting- even with my German experience I could understand essentially none of it, but the music made it worthwhile- orchestra, choir, and real organ.

Dorinna and I had different goals for the day. As this was our last day in Europe, we decided to do our own thing. Dorinna visited the Haus der Musik music museum, went on a quest for an open grocery story to buy Nutella, and had a restful few hours reading in a park. For my part, yesterday’s visit to the Kunsthistoriches Museum had merely whetted my appetite for art.

My tour started at St. Stephansdom, the largest church in Vienna. The sculptures and sepulchers were fascinating- well worth the few euros just to see where all the dead emperors were buried. But I cruised through it pretty quickly, so that I could take two U-bahns and a tram to the main event- the Liechtenstein Museum.

I had lunch in the museum café- square noodles with butter and ham, with a side salad of lettuce and chives. I dropped off my stuff and enjoyed an afternoon of Baroque art. Security was very intrusive, watching everyone like hawks. For the first time in my life I was asked to “step back from the painting.” But the museum was almost empty, so it balanced out. I especially liked a series of wall-sized paintings by Peter Paul Reubens about the Roman emperor Decius Mus. The library downstairs was just stunning- the kind of library you would have if you loved books and money was no object- books stretched from tiled floor to frescoed ceiling.

I went to the gift shop to buy the catalog, and bought a German kid’s book. It was a mystery book, loosely based on the Da Vinci code, where you have to solve the mystery. I explained to the attractive young woman behind the counter that I was learning German, but could only read children’s books. “Wenn Man kein Kind ist, es ist schwer interesante Kinderbücher zu finden.” (When one is not a child, it is hard to find interesting children’s books.) She was quite friendly, and told me to enjoy the book. I was quite proud of the fact that the entire exchange was in German.

Dorinna and I arrived at our rendezvous point at just about the same time. We met at the Café Demel, perhaps the most famous bakery in Wien. Two pieces of Sachertorte (a rich chocolate cake), and a Kleiner Brauner (a slow-extracted espresso with milk) later, we went back to Brezel –Gwölb for dinner. I had some pretty amazing cheese spaetzle and good beer. We took a long walk home, including a short u-bahn ride.

The next day our trip ended with an uneventful train and plane ride back to America. It was a great vacation, but we were pretty tired, and we decided that our next vacation would be back in the United States.

Two days later, I read a travel article about Croatia in Outside magazine…

This concludes the story of our Germany-Austria trip from 2005. I’ve still got a large backlog of interesting trips still to describe, including our Central European trip to Hungary and the Czech Republic from last summer, so stay tuned…

Limitations of a Subaru Outback

Note to self: Leave shovel in car until July. Backpacking cook pot and sticks are not practical digging devices.

Joshua Tree Revisited

Now that I've joined the world of YouTube, here are two videos from the trip.

Desert Bighorn


Panorama in the Wonderland of Rocks

National Gallery of Art

During my Washington visit, I spent almost an entire day inside the National Gallery of Art. Here is some of what caught my eye:

13th century Byzantine art- I found the patterns in Mary's dress to be very 20th century.

Interior courtyard

An unusual family

Andre Derain, "Mountains at Collioure"

Wassily Kandinsky, "Sea Battle"

Washington, D.C.

In early April, I traveled to Washington, D.C., for the inagural Manager Tools Effective Management Conference. This was, hands down, the best conference of my professional career.

After the conference I visited a number of my friends- Jeff Burch, John Raymond, Carolyn Mayes, Tracey Ryan, and Christine Hoffman.

This was my first time in the city since I was around 8 years old, so I also took some time to see some sights.

Cherry Blossoms along the Potomac

Lincoln Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Jefferson Memorial

Me in front of the Capitol

Boulder Ice Storm

It feels distinctly odd to be posting this now. At the moment it's 77 degrees and sunny- a far cry from the weather one month ago...

Our friend Daniel visited us for a weekend at the beginning of April. We took him to Boulder- first to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, and then around the Pearl Street Mall. Here are some photos of ice-covered trees from Table Mesa:
To see Daniel's photos, click here and then click "Diashow Starten". (Daniel ist Deutscher und lebt in München.)